


Unpredictable

by SterlingBeryl



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series
Genre: A bit on the chaotic side, A summoner that can't really care anymore, A summoner that remembers where they came from, Cynicism, Depressed outlook, Do they really need Kiran?, Gets captured so they can see what happens, I mean Askr has several tacticians, Will be incorrigible, pessimism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 12:29:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16912911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SterlingBeryl/pseuds/SterlingBeryl
Summary: Kiran has grown tired of praise.





	Unpredictable

The day was overcast, the sky thick with grey clouds swollen with rain. Not long into the battle, they released their heavy burden, and heavy feet trampled the falling rain into squelching mud. 

Zacharias had gone mad yet again. That much was certain. He was a short distance away, and Kiran watched him from behind his little grassy hideout. The mask remained solidly on his face, of course. It was impossible to sight what he was thinking or feeling, and that brought him no end of unease as he steadily waved his soldiers forward from atop his stead. The only sign of his divine madness was the stony grip of his tense hands upon the leather reins. 

Kiran had come too far from the rest of the troops. No matter, as long as he remembered to stay well away from the cavaliers and to make haste back to the army. Sharena would be able to guide everyone safely till he found his way back. He flattened himself to the grass and hoped that none of the enemy army would spot him. His little hideout was more of a sudden dip in the land than an actual hiding place, and anyone who looked a little closer would easily find him. Most likely, kill him. Thank god the rain meant soggy pegasus knights weren’t going to be spotting him too quickly. 

Why was he here? How did he come so far from the troops? He certainly wasn’t aware of when he started wandering further from the front line of the army. 

Kiran blinked. The rain from his hair dripped down his face. There - A knight had split off from the rest of the enemy lines, the man and steed stonily standing at a side. It was Zacharias. 

Kiran had the unsettling feeling that he was scanning the muddy wasteland, and would inevitably see that the Askran tactician was nowhere close to his troops. 

Time to leave. He slowly crawled backwards, slipping back as close to the ground as he could. Then he scrambled up, wet grass under his hands, and ran. 

Maybe the running was too conspicuous, Kiran later would reflect. 

The sound of hooves muffled through the rain reached him, just as he felt that same thundering grow under his feet. 

Zacharias’ fingers found their mark as they wrapped around his wrist and yanked. Kiran raised his eyes at his; they remained shadowed behind the mask. He could sense their burning gaze on him as he blinked the rain from his eyes. 

The horse snorted and stamped its feet. From behind him Kiran could hear Sharena. She shouted something; words that didn’t make it through the dully deafening rain; or his heartbeat pounding in his ears. Orders to their soldiers, heroes trying to fend off the heavy downpour and the lines of mages from Embla. But his breath continued to come fast and short. 

“Let go of me, Zacharias.” He shuddered. His grip tightened slightly. 

Then Kiran felt a cold chill. He was not of Askran blood, and would not stir the dark god within Zacharias. Sharena however, would find her way here soon, advancing on the enemy. Once he saw her, there was no guarantee he could continue to keep his impulses in check. 

How was he going to get out of this mess? 

Did he want to get out of this? It would be unusual not to. 

But he had spent nigh two years with the Askrans, and at some point, his duties had become routine, the conversations exhausting. Days were spent looking forward to new members of the army, and as Breidablik grew heavy, it became harder to care about the war, the loss and the death, even as he spent more time next to Sharena and Alfonse, both everlasting founts of enthusiasm, compassion, and grief. 

Maybe this was the break for something new. 

So he stared up at Zacharias, who seemed befuddled by the fact he wasn’t struggling. He watched as Zacharias hesitatingly slid his tome shut, felt the ground leave his feet as he was hoisted bodily into the saddle. Fingertips fell on his forehead and pushed, the mutterings of a spell the last thing he remembered as the darkening world fell sideways. 

 

~

 

Did they sense their tactician was captured? 

Did anyone care? 

His own world didn’t anyway. The entire world swallowed him up, and he tumbled in the ensuing darkness until it spat him back out into this mockery of a childhood fantasy. 

He didn’t know if he could go back. 

He didn’t know if he wanted to go back. 

Kiran blinked awake, and as the world drew into focus, so did the image of masked Zacharias standing over him with his hand outstretched. 

Kiran shook away the sleepiness, and groaned at the crick in his neck. ‘Good morning.’ He tried to stretch, but his arms were chained behind him, to the back of the chair he was sitting in. He frowned at Zacharias. 

‘I wasn’t about to sleepwalk and escape.’

Zacharias snapped shut the tome he was holding, and tucked it under his cloak. 

‘Did you put me under a sleeping spell?’

‘Why are you here, tactician?’ The man frowned. What did he look like under his mask?

‘You captured me,’ Kiran replied, ‘I had no choice in the matter.’ 

Incredulous silence followed. 

‘Are you-Do you think I wanted to be captured?’ Kiran raised an eyebrow. Strictly speaking, Kiran didn’t know what he wanted to do, or what he wanted to happen. 

‘You certainly didn’t make much of an effort to not be captured.’ 

‘I’m a non-combatant. Once you got me, there was nothing I could do.’ 

‘Again,’ Zacharias folded his arms. ‘Why would you say that?’

‘Because its true?’

‘Because you want me to underestimate you.’ 

‘I think you overestimate me.’

Zacharias loomed over him, the glint of candlelight reflected in his mask. ‘You are one of their key leaders, there is no possible way you could be so careless-‘

‘-But I am. And now I am here, so what will you do?’ Kiran interrupted. 

’Whatever do you mean?’ 

‘Alfonse seems to trust you, or want to.’ Kiran tapped his chained foot. ‘So, now, I am in your hands. At your mercy. And I want to know if you will play the enemy, if I’m about to be tortured, murdered, made to-‘

‘No…no.’ Zacharias interrupted with a wave of his hands. ‘We don’t punish lightly in Embla.’ 

‘Could have fooled me.’ A long silence followed, where Zacharias appeared to glower at him beneath the mask, searching for words. 

This was ridiculously fun. Kiran had been subject to a ludicrous amount of idolising and lavished praise back in Askr. Grima had been enjoyably villainous for a while, but Grima couldn’t really lay a hand on him. 

Kiran had no idea whether Zacharias could actually do him real harm, whether he would be prevented in some way much as Grima had been. This was positively unpredictable.

Something like delight rose high in his chest. Zacharias shot Kiran a look as the tactician barked a laugh, before slamming the cell door shut on him.

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure what this is. But I had fun imagining it.


End file.
